The ubiquitous personal computer has placed constraints upon the manner in which its users conduct their work. Basically, it comprises a keyboard and a viewing screen with a capacity to display the equivalent of one or at most two printed sheets (often less). Because of the size of this hardware, the location of the work station may not always be optimal for both typing and reading. Usually, the CRT display screen is relegated to a more darkened portion of a work area in order to reduce glare and to increase viewing contrast, which is interfered with by ambient light.
The advent of portable computers has increased the flexibility of usage somewhat but screen visibility still presents a problem. Another attempt to make the computer hardware more environmentally compliant was the wireless keyboard which purported to allow the user to type at a remote location and in a more comfortable position when creating a document. When a document is longer than a page the user is confronted with the dilemma of either reading it on the screen display or printing it and reading the resultant paper version of the document. In order to obtain a paper print of a computer displayed document a print command directs the document to a printer dedicated to this function. In a typical office, and in many homes, a convenience copier also will be available.
Once a document has been printed, and retrieved from the printer, there is a tendency to read it in a variety of comfortable positions and under well lighted conditions in order to minimize bodily fatigue and eye strain. Often this reading function is accompanied by simultaneously making marginal notes and other annotations in order to clarify its content or inform another of one's contemporaneous thoughts. Printed paper has numerous other features, in addition to its transportability, which make it a more desirable medium for accessing information than a computer output display. Its "ambient light valve" behavior (i.e. the brighter the ambient light, the more easily it may be seen) enables the reader to ease eye strain simply by using a strong light source. A multi-page document may be easily shuffled from one page to another and several pages may be viewed simultaneously for comparing information appearing on different pages.
It is an object of the present invention to provide the computer work station user with a computer display that looks like paper, can be carried around like paper, can be written on like paper, can be copied like paper, has nearly archival memory like paper, and has a very low cost.